Opening Day Countdown: 13

Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 13 days left until Opening Day on April 6.

13

is Salvador Perez’s jersey number. Rany Jazayerli’s piece on the Perez injury, and the subsequent trade for Humberto Quintero, is quite good. Most reactions that I’ve read include the assumption that the PTBNL in the trade will be someone who was drafted last year, and the teams are just waiting until it’s legal to do so before they announce and complete the trade. Rany, however, suggests this (much happier) alternative:

My guess – perhaps I should say hope – is that it might be a player who is out of options, but the Royals want to see how their roster shakes out first. Would Sean O’Sullivan or Vinny Mazzaro qualify as a “key component” of the trade? They might, simply in the sense that they’d go right to the Astros’ major league roster and maybe even into their rotation.

Please, Lord, let this be the answer. I don’t know how much of a Real Thing “addition by subtraction” is, but if the Royals are at the point where they are actively subtracting the O’Sullivans and/or Mazzaros (Mazzaroes?) of the world, they are at a point where they are ready to win. Acquiring those two in particular – by trading away Alberto Callaspo and David DeJesus, respectively – were seen by many as an indication of a lack of understanding of the value of the players being traded away. To jettison either or both of them* would be a signal from GMDM that now we are in a new part of the Process, and the right pieces are in place.

*or any player whose presence on the 40-man makes you shake your head in embarrassment for the team

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I'm a lifelong Royals fan from Nebraska. I worked for the Omaha Royals/Storm Chasers from 2007-2011 and now I just sort of live at the ballpark.
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